February 12, 2016

Another federal child porn downloader gets another non-prison sentence in the EDNY

A helpful readers alerted me to this notable Newsday report concerning a notable federal sentencing this morning in the Eastern District of New York headlined "Ex-police investigator gets home detention for child porn." Here are the details:

A former investigator with the New York State Police stationed on Long Island was sentenced to 9 months of home detention Friday in a child porn case. Sean Michael Pagano of Mount Sinai could have been sentenced to between 46 months to 57 months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines after he pleaded guilty to one count of accessing child pornography.

Pagano, at the time stationed at Troop L in East Farmingdale, was arrested in April by FBI agents after he was accused of accessing a website in Alaska and downloading child pornography. The arrests came after agents raided a house in Anchorage that served as a base for the distribution of child pornography and took over the site, collecting information on who was involved in the site.

“I take full responsibility for my actions,” Pagano said Friday, tearing up as he spoke in Central Islip federal court. “I am sorry. . . . Helping people was my main goal in life.”

Before sentencing Pagano, U.S. District Judge Arthur Spatt said he was balancing the “seriousness” of the crime with his otherwise “outstanding” career. There is “certainly no danger to society or anyone and he is probably truly remorseful,” Spatt said.

Eastern District Assistant U.S. Attorney Allen Bode had asked for a significant sentence, noting that Pagano, as a state trooper, had gone along on raids involving child pornography with FBI agents on Long Island who normally deal with such cases. Bode said as a result of Pagano’s relationship with agents on Long Island FBI agents from the city had to work on the case.

Before sentencing, Pagano’s attorney Joseph Conway of Mineola described his client as having a distinguished career in the Marine Corps and with the State Police. Pagano has since resigned from the State Police. His position was the equivalent of being a detective....

At the time of his arrest, Pagano claimed he was investigating child pornography. But State Police officials said that that was not correct and he had been assigned to investigating narcotics.

Though I am disinclined to assert that there is a full judicial revolt with respect to the federal sentencing of child pornography offenders in the Eastern District of New York, I do think it quite notable and significant that this is the third significant report of a federal judge in EDNY refusing to accede to the arguments by federal prosecutors that a downloader of child pornography has to be imprisoned (prior coverage here and here and linked below).

Notably, in the course of this discussion at Crime & Consequences in the wake of Judge Jack Weinstein's recent similar sentencing ruling in US v. RV (discussed here), Bill Otis stated his view that there are "very, very few CP cases that actually reach indictment in which a zero [prison] sentence would be acceptable." Though I am not sure I completely agree with that sentiment, I do find the imposition of only home confinement in this case especially notable (and perhaps distinctly questionable) because the defendant here was, according to this press article, a "state trooper [who] had gone along on raids involving child pornography with FBI agents on Long Island," and when arrested "Pagano claimed he was investigating child pornography." In other words, it appears that the CP downloader here had a unique position of trust AND aggravated his crime by obstructing justice when he was first caught. Those aggravating factors lead me to wonder think federal prosecutors might be uniquely eager to appeal this case to the Second Circuit, though I would need to know a lot more about the extent and nature of the child porn downloaded by Pagano before making any predictions about whether such an appeal might prevail.

Comments

So this guy gets 0 prison time, why, because he was a state trooper who seemed truly remorseful? Tell that to all the other poor shmucks who had good jobs, who are truly remorseful, but are doing 5-10 for having done less. I'm sure they'd love a good laugh!

Posted by: kat | Feb 12, 2016 4:20:55 PM

Shouldn't we finally state the obvious to anybody with half a brain, that leaves out certain faux conservatives and many members of the legal (not justice) community:

CP laws, SO laws and soon to be trafficking laws (politicians never learn, except to get idiot votes), are seriously out of whack with any meaningful reality with where the real dangers are. Talk about a guy who used to handcuff people with all their smugness implying look how good we are and how bad the guys they perpwalk are. If anything, there should be an enhancment for being a government hypocrite, but then, most of them are!

Posted by: albeed | Feb 12, 2016 5:12:26 PM

"Before sentencing Pagano, U.S. District Judge Arthur Spatt said he was balancing the “seriousness” of the crime with his otherwise “outstanding” career."

I just disagree with this mode of sentencing because it invariably favors the people who are already favored. It's like Trump's comment about his first million. When a person starts a million miles ahead of everyone else, when will this statement by the judge apply? It will apply in almost every case. Just like, as kat points out, it will not apply for most ordinary folks.

So the dice are loaded.

BTW, this is also the exact same reason why I don't believe that veterans should get a break or more generally why I think the characteristics of the guilty are irrelevant at sentencing. It might help the weak and the powerless in a few situations ("he had a bad childhood") but more often than not the dice are loaded to favor those already favored.

Posted by: Daniel | Feb 12, 2016 5:13:31 PM

He "downloaded" some child porn? So what?

Posted by: Liberty1st | Feb 12, 2016 7:48:18 PM

Lately I feel like sex offenders have no stake in the criminal justice reform movement. No one in the criminal justice reform movement cares about these issues-they only care about lessening punishments for crimes committed disproportionately by blacks and Latinos. Child sex offenses (not to mention white-collar crimes) don't fall into that category so they can be ignored. It may be that criminal justice reform will actually be bad for people convicted of sex offenses because the state will not have as many blacks to lock up and will look for new targets.

Does anyone agree or disagree?

Posted by: 234234 | Feb 13, 2016 6:05:38 PM

234234-
Your are correct, the only talk regarding criminal justice reform seems to be regarding drug offences and minorities. I'm afraid SO's are the last population that it's still 'OK' to discriminate against, and it's the federal government that seems to be doing the most discriminating.
But fear not, as technology advances and more minors are being caught up in internet stings, sexting scandles and such, things will have to change or our next generation will all end up behind bars doing the mandatory 5-10. (But then again, there may be exclusions for minors,so that would put us back to square one.) Oh well, keep hoping for change!

Posted by: kat | Feb 14, 2016 9:55:57 AM

"What time is it?" the Judge asked the defendant sitting in the dock. "Five to ten." answered the defendant. Judge: "That's exactly what you get."
Now if the defendant had just delayed a bit and squirreled around looking at his watch for two minutes then he would have only gotten three years.

Posted by: JackMehoff | Feb 14, 2016 10:26:16 AM

Hmmmmm.... Interesting. I had an exemplary military career, followed up by an exemplary civilian career, and I received 10 years probation for "inappropriate touching," and life on the registry.
I guess as a civilian I should have gone into law enforcement.

Posted by: Oswaldo | Feb 15, 2016 4:27:11 PM

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